Literary picks for week of April 20: Poetry slam and Independent Bookstore Day

It ll be words vs words Friday and Saturday during the third annual Midwest Poetry Mash-Up a regional poetry slam tournament for the Twin Cities and greater Midwest There will be two preliminary bouts per organization beginning at p m Friday with a prize of for the winner Contestants are Hot and Sour Miso Soup Boston Poetry Slam Slam Free or Die Landline the People Queer Shenanigans Macalester Poetry Slam BuckSlam and Ghosts of Moon City The finals are at p m Saturday at Open Book Washington Ave S Mpls For ticket information go to midwestpoetrymashup com Courtesy of the American Booksellers Association Also on Saturday a record-setting area bookstores will participate in the Twin Cities Independent Bookstore Day which celebrates the region s community-based bookstores Rain Taxi is again offering the popular free Bookstore Passport illustrated by Kevin Cannon that can be picked up at participating bookstores between Wednesday and April During those days participants can excursion to as a great number of bookstores as they can getting their Passport stamped at each store Each stamped page becomes a discount coupon for a future visit and readers who reach certain goals can enter to win prizes including bookstore gift cards free books and merchandise and more Readers who obtain - stamps can enter to win a prize pack of books and those with or more stamps can enter to win one of three grand prizes For more details and a list of participating bookstores go to raintaxi com twin-cities-independent-bookstore-passport- Related Articles Literary calendar for week of April Readers and writers Picture books to emphasize kindness Is he Christ Is he Moses Superman s religious and ethical undertones add to his mystique Book Review Make Sure You Die Screaming is an absurd road trip novel for modern times Literary calendar for week of April